Markets committee suggests three sites for vendor relocation
With the December 31, deadline for the end of vending at the so-called Parliament View Mall approaching, the Markets and Public Health Committee of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has identified three possible sites to relocate the vendors.
When the vendors first occupied that space it was to have been for three months, during which time the M&CC was supposed to find a permanent site to facilitate vending.
However, the council was unable to meet that deadline and another and after negations with the owner of the land, an extension on the lease was granted to the M&CC.
Chairman of the Markets and Public Health Committee Lionel Jaikarran told Stabroek News that his community had met and identified three possible sites for the commercial activity to take place. Those areas are: the Ministry of Social Protection Annex parking lot on Water Street, Stelling View Mall, also known as ‘Donkey City’ and the old Ferry Stelling compound which is occupied by Alabama Trading.
So far, there has been no announcement by the council on which of the recommended sites would be used to relocate the vendors.
At last Monday’s statutory meeting, Jaikarran told the councillors that his committee had made the recommendations and would not take any blame should the council not work on them.
He stated that his committee visited and assessed the possible sites before the recommendations were submitted.
According to M&CC Public Relations Officer Debra Lewis, a letter was sent to the Ministry of Social Protection seeking an audience to discuss the possibility of the council being able to use the parking lot.
City Hall had installed lights and resurfaced the current lot, which once housed a Royal Castle outlet, in an effort to make it comfortable for vending. The vendors occupying that area had been retailing in the vicinity of Stabroek Market Square, Water, Longden, American and Croal streets.
The vendors had opposed the city’s plans to relocate them, saying that the area was unfit for business.
City Hall had justified the relocation as a part of its plan to reshape not just the scenery of the Stabroek Market, but also the ambience of the area.
In the last week of October, following a meeting between Town Clerk Royston King and representatives of vendors from the market, they were asked to temporarily remove from the Parliament View Mall to cater for a reorganisation but some were fearful that they would not be allowed to return.
However, the city never followed through with the reorganisation plan for reasons unknown.